“Giving other people credit for what you do right? Ingenious.”
“Look at me,” she said. “I’m not tall, not muscular, not a bichrome. I’m fast, but I’m a girl and a subchromat. I want everyone to underestimate me, Kip. If they think I’m smart, they’ll take me seriously. If they take me seriously, I won’t make it in.” She gripped the little vial on her necklace unconsciously. “Without my mind, I’m not good enough to make it in. Please.”
He raised his hands. “I’ll help you however I can. You’re sure?”
“A thousand times yes.”
He followed her lead. They walked to the Great Fountain via Corbine Street. They passed one group of young men who gave them hard stares, but by now the gangs had heard about the scrubs with money wearing the red kerchief, and because the scrubs’ training clothes didn’t have any pockets and Teia’s and Kip’s hands were open, it was clear that they didn’t have anything.
The men, some of them bloodied from encounters with the other scrubs, let them through without saying a word.
When they got to the Great Fountain, though, only Commander Ironfist was there.
“You can show me your money,” the commander said. He looked pointedly at their lack of red kerchiefs.
“Where are the others?” Kip asked instead. Teia watched him nervously. So rude! — and to Commander Ironfist!
The commander leveled his gaze on Kip and said nothing.
Kip looked away, glowered, but said nothing either.
Anything Teia said would just bring her between Rock and Hard Case, so she kept her peace. What did her father like to say? “She who gets in the middle of a pissing match will only get wet.”
Then she realized Kip was doing it for her. He wasn’t being obstinate, he was pretending to be obstinate to deflect any questions. He was alienating himself from Commander Ironfist-for Teia’s sake. It almost made the brittle, fearful part of her soften. She knew how much Kip thought of the commander.
The Great Fountain capped the artesian well that provided much of Big Jasper’s freshwater. Large underground pipes took water to four other public areas of the city and each of the embassies, and the Chromeria had its own well, but for the poorer residents, the Great Fountain was their sole source of water. Most made the trek at least once a day, if not multiple times.
The fountain itself was crowned by a glass statue of Karris Shadowblinder, the second Prism. She’d been Lucidonius’s widow. Face upturned toward heaven, toward Orholam’s eye, instead of standing, she was suspended by the twin jets of luxin pouring out of her hands toward the ground. Wearing only a shift, she had the lean body and the broad muscular shoulders of a fighter. Teia had always liked that about the statue. No soft lady of leisure, she. Like the drafters who would follow her, Karris the First’s body had been shaped by the pure physical work of hurling luxin as much as she had shaped history by using it.
At all hours of the day, at least one of the Thousand Stars cast its light on the glass statue, illuminating it more brightly than the sun alone could. And several would illuminate it with the last and first rays of every day, making it a beacon in the darkness.
Around the merry splashing of the fountains’ multiple jets, the seven-pointed star took water out to seven jets, allowing for lines to form easily and move efficiently.
At this time of day, there were only a few people in short lines, filling their buckets, setting them on yokes that they lay across their shoulders-or over their heads, in the case of the Atashians-and heading home. A number of shops lined the circle around the Great Fountain, and all of them were prosperous. No stalls were allowed here, nor beggars, which meant that both moved to clog the streets leading to the circle.
Teia sat on one of the benches at the fountain’s edge. She wanted to touch the water, but she didn’t. Jasperites were fiercely particular about their water. Some overzealous chirurgeon had given them notions that you would get sick if you so much as drank a cup of water from the same trough where you’d washed your hands. No arguing with people’s superstitions, Teia supposed.
She hadn’t been daydreaming for five minutes when she heard yelling. Triumphant vaunting. The rest of the scrubs. They were carrying Cruxer on their shoulders, almost the whole class-minus her and Kip.
The boys put Cruxer down in front of Commander Ironfist.
Cruxer beamed, but tried to put on a serious face.
Teia studied them. At least a dozen of them had obviously been in a fight. Clothes disheveled, a chipped tooth in a grinning mouth there, a bloody nose here, an eye swelling shut on one of the prettiest girls in the class, Lucia, a number of them favoring sore hands, bleeding knuckles.
Cruxer waved a hand forward. The class lined up before Commander Ironfist, and now Trainer Fisk who rode in on a horse and dismounted to stand beside his superior. Each team came forward and presented Commander Ironfist with their coins.
It wasn’t everyone. Eight teams had failed, and they glumly walked off to one side, empty-handed.
Teia searched the crowd and finally found Kip. He looked nervous. Great.
“Cruxer, report,” Trainer Fisk said.
“Sir, after my partner Lucia and I brought our coins here, we went back and rallied the others. Together, we broke the gang’s blockade and brought our coins through.” He swallowed. “You did, um, say that the only rules were the rules you’d said.”
“So you took what I’d designed to be an individual test and turned it into a corporate one,” Commander Ironfist said flatly.
“It was too danger-”
“Yes or no.”
“Yes, sir,” Cruxer said. He swallowed again, but didn’t look away.
Ironfist said, “Well done, Cruxer. This is exactly what I was hoping for.”
A cheer broke out and Cruxer seemed to deflate with relief.
When the scrubs quieted again, Ironfist said, “You stood together and you accomplished a job you couldn’t have otherwise. For the Blackguard, the job is all that matters. To the evernight with your pride. You accomplish your job in the most efficient way possible, and the safest way possible. We don’t do this for valor or for glory, we do our job. Now, anyone else, or are we finished?”
The courier rode up then. She was a skinny Tyrean woman, wearing a sword and a brace of pistols. “Pardon me, my lords. Commander Ironfist?”
“I am he,” the commander rumbled.
“This package is for you, from a Kip and Adrasteia.” The courier handed over a bag and then left. The commander opened it, poured the coins out into his hand.
Murmurs. Not altogether appreciative.
“Kip,” Commander Ironfist said. “I assume this was your idea?”
“Yes, sir,” Kip said. Teia could practically hear Kip gulping from here. She said nothing, hoping the commander would ignore her. It simultaneously elated her that her gambit was working and broke her heart that Commander Ironfist assumed it had been Kip’s idea.
“You took your coins to a courier, and then just walked through?”
“Yes, sir,” Kip said.
Teia knew Ironfist’s face would tell her nothing, so she looked at the faces of the other scrubs. Chagrin, consternation, irritation. They had needed to fight to get through. Or run like hell. Kip had cheated. Kip had cheated. They didn’t even see her.
Of course, they had cheated, too, but their cheating had still involved fighting. Their cheating had been honorable. Surely Kip and Teia would be punished.
Commander Ironfist raised a hand, palm down. “Everything has a price. You lot chose to pay the price in flesh. Kip chose to pay in coin. Some of you got off without getting hurt, but some of you did. Our bodies are our coin. Our bodies, ultimately, are all that we Blackguards have. You chose to risk your bodies. Kip and Teia used their minds instead. If instead of coins, I’d given you the White to protect, which would have been better? Running a gauntlet and valiantly risking her death, or sneaking her through in some way no one expected? Kip, Teia, you did well. You each move up two places. Cruxer, Lucia, you each move up two places-of course, you’re in the top spot, Cruxer, so you stay where you are. So we’ll make it so that this week you can’t be challenged out of first. Next week, you’re back in the mix. Those of you who came back with no coins, you each move down two places. Tonight,
